Some Nights
by Little Avalanche
Summary: "She sleeps only when she has to, when it becomes a matter of staying on her feet or crashing down on the floor from sheer exhaustion. And if she can help it, it is never at night." A trio of drabbles, post-KH3. Wayfinder family with a heavy dose of Terqua.
1. Aqua

The first night out of the Realm of Darkness, Aqua doesn't sleep. She hears the others snoring, slipped away into a land of dreams, but rather than soothing her into a place where she can join them, it keeps her wide awake. She spends that night roaming Radiant Garden, on the hunt for Heartless. Even with the stars and the moon and the lights from the houses illuminating her path, she can't seem to break the ten-year habit.

She sleeps only when she has to, when it becomes a matter of staying on her feet or crashing down on the floor from sheer exhaustion. And if she can help it, it is never at night. She can still remember waking up to Heartless clawing at her, and eventually staying awake through sheer force of will alone.

There is only black and gray and blue in her memories, with glimpses of yellow and red.

It's Ven who catches on first, eventually making excuses for her so she can stay busy during the dark hours and sleep during the day. She smiles at him gratefully when she realizes just what he's doing. And until the battle is over, when all of the lost people are given their happy endings and Xehanort is finally vanquished, that is the structure she mostly sticks to: keep awake all throughout the night, sleep as little as she can during the day to make it through.

When she, Ventus, and Terra finally return to the Land of Departure, they restore as much as they can before settling in for the night. For all of Ven's joking that "he's slept ten years, he doesn't need anymore," he puts out far too much energy to _not _be sleepy after a hard day's work, and every time he jumps into his bed she and Terra are afraid that he'll break it.

It was amusing the first time she saw it, and it is amusing this time, watching Terra watch this with a secret smile and an exasperated "Ventus."

There is only a hint of awkwardness between the two Keyblade wielders when they say "goodnight." Terra's bedroom had been in one of the wings destroyed by… well, by Xehanort, when you got down to the bottom of it. So he stays in one of the other rooms that had been cleared away, dragging a spare mattress and a few sheets and settling in for the night. Aqua quietly made her way to her own room, which had somehow been left relatively untouched in the maelstrom, before deciding at the last second to clear away.

She goes instead to the outlook they had spent their last night at. The stars are all there, shining above with varying brilliance, and she stares up for what seems like hours until her eyes grow heavy. But even with the lamps glowing she will not fall asleep. Even though she knows there will be no Heartless, not for now, she will not sleep.

"Hey," she hears behind her, and Aqua starts, turning her head so quickly she almost gives herself whiplash. She sees Terra, who is holding his hands up defensively, and grimaces. "Didn't mean to startle you."

"What are you doing here?" she asks, wiping sleep from her eyes.

"I think the better question is, what are _you _doing here," he retorts, coming to sit beside her.

"Couldn't sleep," she says, wrapping her arms around her legs.

"Me neither," Terra replies. "I kept seeing… well," he trails off.

She's looking at him, sleepy-eyed, and hesitantly puts a hand on his shoulder. "It's all over, Terra. He's gone."

"Yeah, I know," he says slowly. "It's just going to take getting used to, you know?"

It takes a little while for her to respond, but she nods. By then he's noticed the lapse, and he turns to her with a critical look on his face. "When was the last time you slept?"

Two days ago, and both of them know it. As Master and Successor it had been her duty to make sure every last trace of Xehanort had disappeared—it was a duty she had taken onto herself, knowing she would not rest easy unless she knew for sure that he was gone. And he was; there had been no trace of the fallen Master throughout the Worlds, or any of his followers. It helped to soothe her troubled heart, and she had come back to Terra and Ventus with the news, nearly crying as she told them it was over.

"I'm not tired," she tries to say, but the yawn that stretches her mouth wide makes a fool out of her.

He smirks, knowing he has her caught. "It's all over, Aqua. He's gone," he repeats, and stands up. "That means you're allowed to sleep."

"I don't h-have to sleep if," she starts saying, but she yawns again, and this time her eyes close for a few moments before she's able to open them again.

"I know, you're a big girl. But you need your strength."

"Terra, I _can't_," she says, turning away.

There's a tense silence between the two of them. Terra sighs and walks around her, crouching down so that his eyes meet hers. "You can't, or you won't?"

She refuses to say anything, instead bending her head down to look at the grass.

"You see the Darkness when you sleep, don't you?" he asks, and she whips her head up so quickly that it _does _give her whiplash. It's more of an answer than he needs; he nods and then stands up again, but this time he extends his hand. "C'mon. I think I have something that might help with that."

Still processing his words, Aqua takes his hand and pulls herself up, somewhat unsteady on her feet. He wraps his arm around her shoulders, and she uses him to help her balance. They walk like this back to the main castle, up the flight of stairs and into Terra's makeshift room.

It's illuminated, but not from the one lamp that probably hasn't worked in the last twenty years, let alone night. There's a spinning nightlight plugged into the socket throwing celestial shapes onto the walls. It's a movement just gentle enough to not cause her motion sickness, but enough to draw the eye around the room.

Terra bends down to plug it out of the wall, and suddenly the room is dark again. He guides her to her own room, closing the door behind them. In one smooth motion he plugs the nightlight in, and suddenly it's her room that's illuminated.

"Keeps the darkness at bay," he says. "I think this came from Ven's room, when he was still afraid of the dark. He's been a heavy sleeper lately, though, so I don't think he'll notice if this is missing."

She doesn't know what to say at all, only looks between the cheery yellow nightlight and the muscular brown-haired man in front of her. When she's finally able to remember herself, she says, "Thank you," but even those two words, while sincere, don't seem like enough.

He doesn't say anything, instead goes to her bed and pulls back the covers. "If you want, I can stay here. I uh, don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight either."

"Then why…?"

"Not because of the darkness," he says almost hastily, and if she was more awake she would have asked him about it; but she lets it be, just this once. "There're just some things on my mind I need to sort out. I might as well do them in here."

It is her body that takes her to her bed, pushing off her shoes with clumsy movements, and climbs under the covers; Terra pulls them up to her chin, a gesture that makes her pause and look up at him with sleepy, confused eyes. "I'll be right here when you wake up," he says with that soft smile of his, and she's glad she's under the covers for the way her toes curl at the sight of it.

"Thank you," she says, and this time it sounds properly thankful.

"Goodnight," he says for the second time that night, and pulls the chair away from her desk to sit on it.

She doesn't remember closing her eyes, only waking up. She jolts out of bed in surprise to see sunlight streaming through the windows, and turns to the mirror on her door. The dark circles are still there, but they are far less pronounced than they had been for what seemed to have been a month; her cheeks look pinker, and her eyes look brighter.

And just like he said he would be, Terra was there in the chair. His head was bent down, his hair obscuring his face, and his shoulders rose and fell with each breath. It almost made her want to cry; she did smile, and slipped as quietly as she could from her bed.

One gentle hand brushed away the bangs, and he stirred under the touch, not quite waking. "Good morning," she murmured, cupping his cheek with her hand.

"Sleep well?" he slurred, blinking awake with sleepy bedroom eyes.

"Better than I have in a very long time," she says, smiling. "Did you?"

He yawns in reply, stretching and rolling his neck. She can hear it pop, and it makes her shudder at the sound. "Not the most _comfortable _sleep I've had in a while, but it was okay."

They both chuckle, unknowingly coming closer to each other—but at the sound of a cheery woop and an excited "GOOOOOD MORNING WORLD," they come apart, genuinely laughing.

"Guess we should go get that kid breakfast," Terra said, standing up from the chair.

He makes it to the door before remembering to turn the nightlight off, and starts to open it when Aqua asks, "Do you want to stay here tonight?"

He pauses, turning toward her with a curious expression on his face. Aqua smiles at him, folding her arms loosely across her chest, and stares. Terra laughs, turning to face the hallway, and nods. "See you tonight then, I guess."

"See you at breakfast," she amends.

Terra closes the door to give her some privacy, and Aqua sighs happily to herself, a restful sound that is the product of the first good night in ten years.


	2. Terra

_While this story was originally meant to be a stand-alone, I got it into my head that this would work even better as a series dealing with the possible aftermath of KH3. So here's Terra's nighttime troubles. Stay tuned for Ventus, who I'm intending to be the final final bit. Thanks again for reading!_

* * *

The Darkness would never truly go away—Terra knew that as well as anyone, probably better. But with the defeat of Master Xehanort and his cronies there was little cause for worry. It soothed everyone. People were smiling again, and some of them were even dancing around without a care in the world, basking in the lights that the Hearts of all the Worlds were giving off. Everywhere he went people seemed to be in higher spirits. They'd smile at their neighbors, play with children as if they were children themselves. The citizens of the other Worlds might not have known exactly what had been going on, but they seemed to move as though a weight had been lifted off of them; and in the release of that weight, one they hadn't known existed, they were all the happier for it.

For some reason, he can't feel the same way.

It takes a long while for the Land of Departure to be restored, or as restored as it probably will ever be; hours of work between him, Ven, and Aqua pass, each of them making sure every surface is gleaming. Sometimes they throw familiar taunts at each other, as if these were the good old days before everything had gone to hell. There are smiles between them too, like they had nothing to worry about; some moments they forgot about what time and Xehanort had put them through, that they had spent more time together in a month than they had in _years._

Each night ends the same way: Ventus stretches his new lean muscles and saying "be sure to wake me up in the morning, I don't need another ten year nap" before going into his bedroom; Aqua slips into hers with a hesitant glance; and Terra wanders around the castle for a few minutes, maybe half an hour, before following Aqua.

It's an arrangement they had come up with a few months ago. A week had gone by where he had sat in the chair by her desk, the night light flashing in the corner of the room; when Aqua had noticed the new stiff way he had carried himself, she had suggested pulling in the mattress and just hunkering down on the floor. "You need your sleep, too," she had said, and though it had taken a day or two for him to think about it, eventually he relented.

That chair really _was _a pain in the ass. And neck. And lower back.

They have staring contests sometimes, each daring the other to fall asleep first. Usually he wins, even if it's only by minutes, and by that point he's too tired to see the changes a few months of this routine has done to her. He remembered seeing her that first day, when all three of them had returned from the darkness or sleep: her hair lackluster, deep dark circles underneath bloodshot eyes. They all knew that she hadn't been sleeping—why no one had just cast Sleep on her to give her a few hours, he would never know—and she had carried on despite it. It was brave, and it was stupid, and it was reckless, which meant that somehow he had rubbed off on her.

He's exhausted, and he can feel it in his bones; but he rolls and tosses and turns in his blankets for over an hour, with that nightlight blinking in his eyes. Suddenly he tosses the blankets off of him and steps out of the room, summoning Ends of the Earth in his hand. It's cold outside, and it would be even if he was wearing actual clothes—in his tent-like pants and skin-tight shirt, he's absolutely freezing.

But he doesn't care. He heads for the enclosure in the training space, his eyes fixed on the gold hoops that shine in the light cast from the newly-restored lamps. He takes a whack at one, and when it starts to circle around he keeps whacking. The strain is good because he knows what it is; he can put a name and a face to the pulling of his muscles, the beads of sweat dripping down his back.

Each hoop is a different person: Master Xehanort, Braig, that damned Guardian, Maleficent, the creepy Queen who wanted Snow White's heart. They go in a circle until their features all blend together, but it doesn't matter. Terra hits and hits and hits until he's panting, until his whole body is bowed and his legs are shaking and it's all he can do to keep himself standing.

But he keeps on hitting, because his tiring body is a pain he would much rather face compared to the crap going on in his head.

He feels something behind him, and turns his head around, his hair whipping him in the face. Aqua's there staring at him in a pale blue bathrobe with her arms crossed, and even though it's dark he knows the look on her face. It's the same look that's on _everyone's _face, that blend of pity and "it wasn't you" and "you didn't do anything wrong."

But he did do something wrong. If it hadn't been for him, none of this would have happened in the first place. It isn't something he can forget.

"Did I wake you up?" he asks between clenched teeth, turning away from her.

"No," she says.

There is silence between them for a good few minutes, long enough for the spinning of the training wheel to come to a rusted halt. That's something he'll have to fix in the morning. "What are you doing out here, Aqua?"

"Do I have to have a reason?" she asks just as curtly, coming closer to him.

He feels the crisp chill of darkness washing over him, and he can _smell _it; it has a sweet smell, sickly sweet, and he almost gags from it. Maybe in the dark of the night she won't be able to tell. "No," he says after another pause.

Terra hears the sound of Stormfall being summoned, and out of the corner of his eye he sees the dark gray of the blade, almost perfectly blending into the night. "Trying to get back in practice?"

He hears the hesitation in her voice, and he wonders if she hasn't noticed after all. "Trying to get my head back in order," he replies. It's a weak response and both of them know it.

He takes a few more whacks, and at that point he absolutely _cannot _move his arms anymore. Ends of the Earth fades from his grasp just as Stormfall reaches in front of him, slamming against the gold rings with a clang, and Terra's eye is drawn—again, like it always is when Aqua trains—to the absolutely correct form Aqua is displaying. Eraqus would have been proud.

"Wish I could do that," he murmurs to himself. He must have said it louder than he had thought, though, because Aqua immediately turns to him, like she's been slapped. Stormfall is dismissed with a cloud of flower petals—_how girly_, he had taunted when they were little kids—and she makes her hands busy by tightening the belt around her robe.

"If you wanted," she says slowly, "I can… I know I'm not a _real _Master but I can—"

"I don't even know if I should become a Master anymore."

The words slipped out without him wanting them to, but he doesn't try to pull them back. They settle between them, the proverbial pink "I've helped destroy worlds and kill people" elephant that makes both of them take pause. The night is making smoke out of his breath, he sees, and he concentrates on that because it's easier than concentrating on the broken look on Aqua's face.

"You don't mean that."

"What if I do?" he shouts, finally looking at her square in the eye. "What if I wasn't cut out for this, Aqua? I spend all that time training and busting my ass and _this _is what I get?" There's no broken wreckage of the Land of Departure, but the image of it still sits firm in Terra's memory. In all of their memories, and he knows this because it's still only been two months. "You trapped in the Darkness, and Ven without a heart, and me—and the Master—" He breaks off and bows his head, turning away from her again.

He feels arms wrap around his waist and a head settle on his shoulders, and while it goes against all of his instincts—he wants to push her off, he wants to get her away—he succumbs to the soft firmness of her touch and absolutely breaks down. They start off as quiet cries for a little bit before he starts keening instead, and then he starts sobbing. He turns around and grabs at her as if she's the only real thing in this place, and she grips him right back.

"The Master understood, I know he did," she says quietly, and even though he doesn't agree he nods, because it's the tone of her voice that's comforting, not the words. "He wouldn't blame you. Ven and I don't either. You—we all did things wrong. All of us."

He doesn't expect her to get it. She was the one out of the three of them who had clung to the Master's words the hardest, and even now still had trouble letting them go. He knows she tries not to be insensitive but sometimes she says the wrong thing. His knuckles go white at the mere thought of it: that she's trying and, because she's Aqua, she'll probably succeed.

Him? Well. He's the reason all of them, including the kids from Destiny Island, are in the rut they're in in the first place.

But he clings to her anyway, even if most of the reason is because she's warm and her bathrobe is soft, and they spend a long while just holding on to each other. Somehow one of them has shifted so that their chests are pressed together; she is so close to him that he can feel her breath on his cheek, and her hair tickling his face, and he's sure that she can feel his own hitched breathing and his shuddering body.

"You're going to catch a cold if you stay out here any longer," she murmurs in his ear, and pulls away.

Their eyes are meeting now, bright blues and dark ones; they're still wrapped up in each other's arms, still close enough so that their breath mingles together. Her robe has come undone just a bit, and Terra can't help but notice the lacy pajama top that's getting just a little too tight. (He doesn't complain; when they had first arrived it had looked like a potato sack on her. A little too tight means she's gaining weight back, and that's a good thing.) "Looks like you will too," he remarks, and he smirks as Aqua looks down and grabs back her hand to close the exposed robe shut.

"You're being silly," she says, and starts to turn away to lead him back up to the castle—to their room?—but he grabs her shoulder gently, like that night he had found her on the outlook, and she turns around.

"Um," he starts, and looks down. "Thanks. You know. For being here."

He feels her soft fingers tilt his chin up, and while he's still in control of where he's looking—not down her shirt, not down her shirt—he sees her smile. "That's what we do," she says, and her words are just as soft as her touch, "protect each other."

He doesn't see how he's been protecting her, but it's better at this point, he thinks, to just go with it. They make their way slowly back to the castle, because Terra is absolutely exhausted, and by the time they make it to her—their?—room he collapses on the mattress that's on the floor. He expects the harsh recoil of the drop and hardly pays attention to the protest in his body, already bruised and battered from the midnight exertion.

What he isn't expecting: Aqua pulling the blanket over him and crouching right above his head. "You're sure you're going to be alright?" she asks timidly. Terra, who can already feel his eyes becoming heavy like lead, like guilt, nods.

He hears something shift, probably Aqua getting into her bed—and then he feels a body coming to rest beside his, on top of the covers. He turns his head and opens a lazy eye to see her pressed between him and her own mattress. "You don't have to do this," he slurs, but Aqua pushes herself closer towards him and he doesn't make any other protest.

"We're doing this together. Always."


	3. Ven

_I don't know what made this part so freaking hard but it was, especially after trying to process everything after KH3D. (To which I have to say, no spoilers for this game in this story!) To everyone who's commented on this story or any of my others—thank you so much! Hopefully you'll enjoy this final installment. :)_

He doesn't think they'll ever get back to the place they were at, not completely. Ven knew this even before everything with Master Xehanort had happened. If things had gone according to plan, Terra and Aqua would have been off being Super Awesome Keyblade Masters. And Ven… well, Ven would have still been training as hard as he could, working harder and harder toward his goal so that one day he could catch up to his best friends.

It seemed that was all he had ever done, until he had pursued Terra and seen the Worlds all by himself. And he hadn't died. (Losing his heart for a few years didn't mean dying, Master Yen Sid and Mickey had told him, a thousand answers for his thousand questions.) Maybe he would have asked the Master to let him follow Terra and Aqua, but he knew what Eraqus would have said: _wait a while longer, get stronger. _

It's only because of the stupid X-Blade, which shouldn't cause them any more problems at all.

But when the three of them had done all they can to restore the Land of Departure, have polished every surface and given another coat of paint to anything that needed paint—it's a great way to practice his Aeroga and Zero Gravity and flying, Aqua had said—they had hesitantly begun a new routine. Terra and Aqua train him together now, even though Terra still technically isn't a Master. Aqua, the only one who even technically is one, never says anything about it. Truth be told, she hardly seems to say much of anything about _back then_.

In time, they say, they'll travel all the Worlds together: they'll beat the bad guys and make sure no one tries to be the next Xehanort, they'll help the Princes and Princesses and amazing people who live on every World in all the far-reaching places of their universe.

But he always hears Aqua talk about doing research with Ansem the Wise about Hearts, or roaming the Worlds for future Keybladers to train. He knows that Terra doesn't know what exactly he wants to do; he talks about finding someone to train for himself, but the older Keyblade wielder is always so focused on getting to the Master part first that he doesn't talk about the future _after _that first.

They ask him what he wants to do, too, but Ven has absolutely no idea; he doesn't care, as long as he's with them. Part of him wants to wander the Worlds for himself, too, but not to find anyone to train: he wants to see the Worlds and keep the balance, be a Seeker. He'll always be there for dinner, and he would tag around Terra and Aqua when he wanted to. Even if the ending destination hadn't been what any of them had wanted, the journey throughout the Worlds years ago had given Ven an appetite for adventure.

But when Aqua and Terra talk about _their futures_, especially curled up in each other the way they always do when they think he isn't around—he is, but he's like an early spring wind: only noticeable if you're looking for it—he wonders if he's slowly becoming forgotten. There was one time he had peeked into Aqua's room, only to find Terra there, sleeping in her chair. A few days later he would find Terra on her floor. And even though it took a while, he finally found them both in her bed. It made him feel happy, because he's seen enough romances now to know that what they have is _real… _but every once in a while there are pangs of loneliness, of _what if I'm not good enough anymore?_

Sometimes Ven sleeps through the nights, but those nights where he finds them together, without him, are the ones where he doesn't get more than a wink.

He puts on a happy face, of course, because that's what he does best: Terra broods, Aqua frets, and Ven makes light of everything (sometimes even himself) to put smiles back on their faces. And he doesn't mind that. When the sun's shining and they're all outside, either training or reminiscing—happy memories, always, because it's all any of them can handle—it's totally fine. It's when it's dark and they're going their separate ways that he begins to fall apart.

He's pretty sure he's the only one who knows the secret stairway to the top of the castle anymore. Ven is up there when the snow starts falling, which doesn't bother the blond-haired boy at all: he's got what feels like fifteen thousand layers on, and a little fire going. (Aqua would yell at him for casting Fira on the roof, but it's not like it's a strong one, and what she doesn't know won't hurt her.) Even if he can't see the stars with all the clouds, the falling snow is nothing bad to look at either.

It's cold, and it's dark, but rather than making him feel isolated and alone, it makes him feel… oh, who is he kidding.

The sky is just beginning to lighten up when Ven opens his eyes. The first thing he realizes is that he's finally lasted a whole night without jerking awake at least once. The second thing is that he's really _really _cold, and the third thing he thinks is _wow, I didn't burn the castle down. Awesome!_

The fourth and fifth things he sees are Aqua and Terra, looking down at him. Both of them look relieved, though Terra looks like he's fumbling for words and Aqua's just glaring at him, like _where the _hell _have you been all night?_

"So, uh, it snowed last night?" he offers with a hesitant smile, but when neither Terra or Aqua lightens, Ven gives up the act. "Okay, go ahead."

"What were you _thinking_?" Aqua shouts, clutching her bathrobe close to her body as a nippy wind blows over. Terra grimaces behind Aqua, and as the blue-haired woman continues on he raises a hand.

"We went to the outlook—" Terra lifts up one finger "—and the training ring—" another finger "—and _every single room _of the castle—" by this point Terra has thrown up both hands "—and everywhere else we could think of."

"My idea to search up here," Terra interjects. "I know it's been a while since I brought you up here, but… well, there was nowhere else left."

Ven hears the words Terra doesn't say: _on this World. _For a second he's angry that either of them would think that he'd just take off without any word to them, but that second passes quickly as he starts a staring contest with his shoes.

"You _scared _us," she finally says, bending down in the snow to press a hand on Ven's knee. "Why were you even up here, anyway?"

"Needed some place to think," he mumbles.

Because he isn't looking up, Ven only sees Terra's shoes circle around him before he feels strong hands brace his shoulders. "Why didn't you just come to us?"

How would he have been able to, when the thing he was trying to think about _was _them? "I just… needed some alone time."

They only stay like that for a moment before Aqua's ushering him down to the bathroom, drawing a hot bath so he can soak; Terra does something to make his room and blankets really warm, and while Ven isn't the least bit sleepy, he does have to admit it's nice to have feeling in his toes again.

He's only asleep for an hour, but when he wakes up he sees Aqua and Terra hunched over his bed like they've both been on the wrong side of a Sleep spell. Maybe they were up all night looking for him. It's one of those things Ven doesn't think he'll ever know, but maybe it doesn't matter.

He'll still have those worries and doubts, because he loves and cares for his two best friends more than he loves or cares for anything. More than the Worlds, more than his own self. He told them that once and they had hugged him for what had seemed like hours. He hadn't minded one bit.

Terra stirs and looks up at him with bloodshot eyes, but there's a tired smile on his face that Ven can't help but meet. "Your bed's really comfy," the older boy slurs.

"Better than Aqua's?"

He didn't mean to say the words, but now that they're out Ven doesn't try to take them back. Terra's quiet for a moment before sighing, running his fingers through his hair. (It's a lot shorter than it used to be—another way to separate him from his days as Xehanort and Xemnas, he had once said.) "Is that what that was about last night?" he asks quietly.

They both look over to Aqua, who's still sleeping soundly; Ven nods, and Terra sighs again. "You in the mood for a drink?" the older Wielder asks quietly, and though Ven is pretty sure where this is going he nods. The two of them make their way out of the room and head down to the kitchen, saying nothing. While hot chocolate is being prepared, Ven sits down at the table, his head resting on crossed arms. Terra pushes a steaming cup toward him before sitting right beside the blond boy, his own mug just in reach. "You can tell me anything, you know," Terra says.

"I just… you two are always talking about your futures, and that's okay, but I don't… I don't know where my place in that is anymore."

There's a lengthy pause before Terra finally says something. "What do you want it to be?"

"With you," Ven says immediately, looking up and meeting Terra square in the eye.

"You… ah." Terra never was the best one with words, and it's showing now in the way he clutches his head in his hands. "You won't ever lose us."

"I know that," Ven mutters. He feels Terra's hand on his shoulder, but the blond boy shrugs out of the touch, looking away. "It just feels like you and Aqua… I mean I'm _happy _for you, but you all are talking about the future and what you're going to do with your lives, and I just—we've spent so much time apart already. And I don't want to lose any more time."

Terra's rubbing the back of his head and Ven's only just catching his guilty expression from the corners of his eyes; it's why he's the one to see Aqua lingering in the shadows, the glint of her Wayfinder just catching the light. They meet each other with equally sad looks on their faces, but Terra is completely obvious as he talks.

"You will not lose either of us. Do you understand?" he asks, and Ven looks to him with wide eyes. "I don't know where life is going to take us… and we might not always be together. No one is, all the time. I don't th—I don't really know what's going to happen. But no matter what does, we'll be there for each other. Because we're a family."

"I don't," Ven starts, but he doesn't know what to say. Terra's said what all of them have been saying from the moment they were reunited again, and even sometimes what they used to say _before_, when the only really important event in their lives was Terra and Aqua passing the Mark of Mastery Exam, before Xehanort and Vanitas. "I don't know what's going to happen. And I guess that's what really scares me."

He directs those last few words to Aqua, who sighs. It's loud enough for the both of them to hear, and Ven swears that Terra nearly jumps out of his skin before looking at her. "Have you been here a long time?" he asks.

She nods, but doesn't take a step toward them; she just looks at Ven with that same fire he had grown accustomed to seeing during the battle against Xehanort. It's a fierce gleam that pins him down—like he could move before—and he feels like he's encased in ice again. "I don't know why you didn't just talk to us about this—"

"I do," Terra says, and looks back to Ven. "And no matter what happens between… between Aqua and me, that doesn't mean we don't care about you."

The three of them are silent for a long while. Ven takes his hot chocolate and sips at it, half-heartedly swallowing. It warms him up just slightly, and it gives him an excuse not to talk about anything. Both Terra and Ven nurse at their drinks while Aqua takes a seat between the two of them. Ven can't help but notice, _again_, that her shoulder is brushing against Terra's, even if her eyes are all on him.

"So if I wanted to get out of here for a while," Ven starts hesitantly, "and just come back whenever I wanted… then maybe…"

"If you want to go travel the Worlds—_after _you become a Keyblade Master," she interjects, looking pointedly at the both of them, "then you can. Safely. If you want to stay here and train the next generation of Wielders, you can."

"You have a choice," Terra says. "And whatever you decide, we'll support it."

"Just don't do anything foolish. I can't chase you around the Worlds again, you know."

"There goes my plans," Terra mutters, and all three of them laugh. It's enough to dispel the dark thoughts from Ven's head, and he smiles at Terra and Aqua who had—perhaps without realizing it—leaned into each other.

"Do you ever get scared about the future?" Ven asks them, leaning back against his chair.

And it's that final question that gets to the heart of the matter; as Ven stares, Terra and Aqua look at each other, wide eyed and almost confused. Terra doesn't say anything, at first, and Ven knows that he's just as scared as he is. He's always been like that, too: too unwilling to let others into his head, even though they know _something _is off. "All the time," Terra quietly admits.

But it's Aqua who smiles and shakes her head. "No," Aqua says, before standing up and hugging Ven. "Not at all."

Terra chuckles quietly, but Ven's still confused—it's a typical Aqua answer: it should make sense, but it doesn't. Out of the corner of his eye Ven sees Aqua extend a hand to Terra, who takes it. "So long as we're all together," she says firmly, a statement that has all three of them nodding, "I'm not afraid of anything."


End file.
